The MOA is still unsigned less than a week before town meeting, and mostly a tool to benefit the Capital Group. The town should walk away until it's reworked, signed and backed by...anything.

 

Photo by Hilbert Hill on Unsplash

On Monday, the Select Board took their last look at the "Memorandum of Agreement" with the Capital Group, it was still incomplete.   At one point the MOA Committee committed to having it "complete in February."   In April, we were told it could be ready before the May town meeting.   On September 12th, we were told it would be ready "next week."   With barely any time left, it may still be unsigned at Town Meeting.

Bob needs a new car.  He has his wife drop him off at the dealership, waves goodbye, and tells her "I'll drive myself home in my new car before lunch!"

Bob is wearing the manufacturer's logo on his t-shirt.

Bob printed out the listing for the car he wants, and asks the manager to snap a picture of him in front of it on the lot, "so I can put it on my Facebook!   Where do you think we should drive it on vacation this weekend?"

Bob notices that every salesman at the dealership is suddenly playing rock-paper-scissors --- they all look very excited to meet Bob. 

Bob is greeted by the best rock-paper-scissors player at the dealership, puts his checkbook on his desk, and says "let's negotiate!"

I think Bob is about to find himself at a salesman's mercy, and that's where Lancaster is now.

Lancaster needed an agreement with the Capital Group to address some serious issues with expanding the Enterprise Zone for the Capital Group.  At the minimum:

• The town needs the Capital Group to commit to the necessary road improvements.  The traffic study last November made it clear that Lunenburg Road cannot handle the traffic from the project the Capital Group is promising.   We will need millions of dollars in upgrades that the town would not want to assume.
  
  
•  The town needs assurance that Capital Group would not build a 40B.  A real risk exists that, despite the new zoning, the Capital Group would just build a 40B anyway.  Because the town was coordinating with the Capital Groups PR Team, the town was careful not to oppose their 40B application this summer.    When the town wrote its response to MassHousing in May, they carefully pulled every punch.   The Capital Group has a prior appeal pending that is a "related application" under 40B regulations, and Capital Group had just been sued by Southborough for abusing the 40B process: there was no mention of this in the town's response.  The Select Board even decided not to state their opposition to a 40B in the response.
  
  
• The town needs to unravel the prior land-deal-gone-wrong.  The developer previously failed to transfer 86 acres of land to the town, and the town has relied on the prospect of a new MOA to complete that transfer.  
  
  
• The town needs some assurance that the Capital Group would not use the new zoning in unacceptable ways.  Even if a warehouse is acceptable to you, the Enterprise Zone allows some uses that should not be used adjacent to residential property or in the Area of Critical Environmental Concern.  

This should have been relatively easy to accomplish:  the town should have presented the Capital Group with what it decided that it needs in exchange for sponsoring this zoning change,  and then waited for the Capital Group to sign the agreement before placing an article before the town meeting.   The town was in the driver's seat:  when I was on the MOA committee in February, I was very vocal about the need to have this signed before we moved the article forward -- it's the only leverage we have.

What the town did, was the opposite.  In addition to helping market the new development to voters (!), the town has now sought to place the zoning amendment on the warrant three times (in February, May, and now November) without first having a signed MOA in place.

A substantial excerpt from page 4 of the 11/7 draft of the MOA, which is still substantially incomplete a week before showtime. Substantially.

Members of the Select Board, the committee that drafted the MOA, and the public have all voiced their concerns that the MOA has become something that favors the Capital Group:

• No guarantee that the road improvements would ever be completed on any schedule.   The only work they commit to on a timeframe is the foundation work for traffic signals.  
• The massively reduced financial benefit to the town.  Six months ago drafts listed $2 million/year for the town.   The amount guaranteed is now a total of $250,000 over five years.  
• Land the town was owed is never transferred.   Some other land (undetermined on Monday) may be transferred, but only in the far future.
• Binding arbitration to resolve any disputes about the MOA.
• Payments only in exchange for special "expedited permitting."
• If Capital Group doesn't use the zoning to build warehouse space, they can turn around and use it however they like without compensation.   They can build a 40B, 
• No performance bond.  Nothing is backing the agreement at all, which is with 702, LLC rather than the parent corporation.
  
  

It's entirely possible that Bob, the guy too eager to buy his car, will still enjoy his car.  But anyone watching would tell him the same thing: get up, walk away, and come back another time and do this thing right.   

That's what an objective town government would advise Lancaster to do next week:  walk away this month, negotiate things properly, and then bring this back to town meeting with an MOA secured that serves the town's best interest.